


I thought you hated me!

by bsea219



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Falling In Love, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Miscommunication, Nico gets therapy, Slow Burn, Therapy, Three Days in the Infirmary (Percy Jackson), Trauma, directly after Nico's last scene in BoO, infirmary, percy jackson isn't conceited, they're doing their best, three days, will add more tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-04-23 04:08:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19143271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bsea219/pseuds/bsea219
Summary: Nico doesn’t know how to express his emotions or interpret the emotions of others, Will wants nothing more than to get the son of Hades to like him, and neither can take a hint.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I really hope to update at least one chapter a week, posting on Fridays, but we all know how plans tend to go, so I guess we will just have to see, won't we.
> 
> Edit: I found an editor! She's great!
> 
> Edit 2: I made a Patreon, so if you want early access to chapters and extra content, be sure to become a Patron! No major plot points will be only there, only extra things, so no one needs to become a Patron if they don't want to! Link is below!
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/bsea219

Nico walked across the field, heading back towards Will Solace. He had made a promise, after all, and now here he was.

His nerves were frayed, who’s wouldn’t be directly after they tell Percy Jackson they used to have a crush on him? It was over, though. Both the crush and that interaction. In all honesty, it hadn’t been as bad as Nico thought it would be.

“I told you I’d be back.” Nico said with a slight smile.

Will rolled his eyes and led Nico inside, saying a quick, “follow me.”

Once Nico entered the building, everything he had sensed from outside the walls amplified and hit him all at once. There were campers in here who were seriously injured and Nico could almost taste the death rolling in waves. Eyes snapped towards him, as if the feeling of death was coming from him. Will paid it no mind, showing Nico to a sectioned off area near the center of the infirmary. Next door, even though the curtains were closed, Nico could tell there was a camper who was close to dying. Maybe not actively, but if she wasn’t treated well, it would happen soon.

Nico hated it. 

“Will,” Nico started, “I don’t think it's very smart for me to be here.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Nico grimaced. “I can feel all the death in the room. I’m probably actually speeding up the process for some people here, seeing as my dad is Hades. These--they don’t deserve that.”

Will looked at Nico and shrugged.

“You need to be here just as much as they do. Last I heard, you were dissolving into mist, not eating properly, not sleeping properly, not communicating properly, and countless other things. So sit down on the bed and give me your arm.”

Nico stared at Will, trying to figure him out. It really wasn’t common for him to be spoken to like that. People usually feared him, if they mouthed off then they were going to get a zombie chasing after them, but he guessed that since Will had put a ban on power usage, he wasn’t fearful of that happening.

Nico huffed, sitting down nonetheless.

“When the other campers complain, you’re the one dealing with them anyways.” Nico murmured.

Will chuckled a little bit. He rolled his eyes again, then reached out to take Nico’s arm. He held his fingers against Nico’s wrist, wrote something down, then used his stethoscope to listen for a heartbeat. Nico took breaths when Will told him to and let Will look down his throat and up his nose. Once all his vitals were taken, Will started asking questions about his habits.

“How many hours do you sleep a night?”

“No.”

“No?”

“None.”

Will wrote that down, then asked, “How many meals a day do you eat?”

“One.”

“And what does it usually consist of?”

“Fruit, a granola bar, maybe a sandwich if that’s available.”

Will sighed audibly and continued writing.

After a few more questions that likely left Will more and more disappointed, Nico was allowed to sit back and rest. Will left him to be on his own, stating that he needed to check on other patients in the infirmary. Nico nodded and left it at that.

After about a half an hour, Nico had settled into his space. He hadn’t thought to bring a bag, which he admitted, was stupid on his part. If he was going to be staying here for three days, that meant he needed three changes of clothing. As Nico moved to go find Will, he paused as he heard voices.

“I don’t know why they let the son of Hades stay here. It’s making everyone else nervous, what happens if he touches a patient and kills them?” A voice said.

“Exactly! That crack in the dining pavilion? That’s his fault, he made that a few years ago after one of Percy’s quests. He’s too powerful.”

“I didn’t even know that. Gods, what if his death powers leech into everyone else?”

Nico didn’t recognize the voices, he didn’t even know where they were coming from. He sighed, resolving to keep going anyways. They could go screw themselves, for all Nico cared.

He pushed out of his makeshift room, ignoring the few pairs of eyes that followed his journey to where Will was standing a few yards away.

“I need to go get my clothing.” Nico huffed. Will seemed a little surprised to see Nico, but didn’t let it sway him.

“Nope, you’re going to stay here. I’ll get Kayla or Austin to stop by your cabin for you.”

Nico made a noise of indignation. “What do you mean, they’ll do it for me?”

“I mean that if you leave, there’s no telling you’ll come back. You have a history of doing that; running away when you don’t like it. I know you said you’d stay before, but who’s to say that you won’t immediately break your promise?” Will asked, looking Nico directly in the eye.

Nico scowled in response, he hadn’t intended on leaving. He really was going to get his clothing, but now that Will said it, he understood the logic.

That didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“So, I have to let people I don’t know into my cabin to get my items because you can’t trust me?”

Will smiled, either oblivious to the sarcasm or choosing to ignore it. “Now you’ve got it!”

Nico huffed again and made his way back to his room.

A few minutes went past, then a blonde head stuck itself into Nico’s room. It took Nico a second to realize that it wasn’t Will, but his younger brother.

“Will told me to ask what you wanted from your cabin.”

Nico groaned, he really didn’t want some kid snooping through his things, but there wasn't anything he could do about that, it seemed. At least, not without Will killing him.

“Three shirts, three pairs of pants, three… three pairs of underwear, some socks. That should be just about it.” Nico grimaced. Will’s brother would not only be seeing, but also touching his underwear. Great.

At least the boy didn’t seem to be too pleased about that fact, either.

When he left, Nico flopped back onto his bed and sighed loudly. He heard a snicker come from next door and fought the urge to go and beat whoever decided that was smart. He was tired, though. Maybe Will was right, he needed to rest and Nico could admit that his habits and way of living weren’t the healthiest. It wasn’t like he had planned on having those habits, but it came from being on his own, and having habits for 4 years made it hard to change them.

Nico found his eyes closing while he waited for Will’s brother with his clothing. He didn’t want to sleep, it was likely he’d have nightmares or someone would kill him in his sleep just because he was there, but sometimes it was inevitable. A few minutes of fighting sleep turned out fruitless, and Nico drifted off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico's first full day in the infirmary. He takes a shower and makes friends, who would've guessed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found a beta reader!! her username is @percyspandapillowpet and she is absolutely incredible! She has an older fic called Summer Nights that you all should check out.
> 
> Also, this is posted on Thursday at 11pm because I'm impatient. Enjoy.
> 
> Edit: Its summer break and I legitimately thought I posted the first chapter on a Friday. No. It was Sunday. Oops.

Nico woke up with a start, feeling a pair of hands touching his arm.

“Good morning, Death Boy.”

“Don't call me that. Why are you touching me?” He grimaced slightly as he watched Will. He took his arm away, wary of his intentions.

“I need to take your vitals,” Will explained, taking Nico’s arm back. “Not my fault you fell asleep.” He continued doing his examination. “How long have you been sleeping for, anyway?”

Nico shrugged. “I don’t really know. Your brother was getting my things, last I checked. He brought them here, right?”

Will pointed at a nearby chair. It had a drawstring bag on it, and Nico could only assume it held his clothing. 

“Do you mean to tell me that you’ve been asleep for over eleven hours?” Will asked, and Nico couldn’t interpret his tone. It was either impressed or concerned, or maybe a mix of the two.

“I guess.”

“You know you don’t have a toothbrush, right?” Will continued in a similar tone. Concerned, Nico decided. “Or shampoo, or deodorant. How do you stay clean?”

Nico scoffed, shrugging away from Will’s touch as he finished taking vitals. “I was homeless for years, Will! What would you expect?”

Will paused, his jaw losing the tension it previously had, and the crease disappearing from between his eyebrows.

“Not that.” He said softly. “Here, we have extra supplies. As soon as I’m done here, the bathroom is all yours. It’s usually meant for Apollo campers, but seeing as it’s probably been five years since you last showered, we can make an exception.”

Nico made a noise of offense. “It hasn’t been five years! I showered when I could, I just didn’t have constant shampoo or soap.” It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t able to carry items around with him—anything more than what was absolutely necessary was a burden, especially with the Athena Parthenos in tow. He was barely able to manage that, let alone an extra bar of soap and a toothbrush.

Will didn’t seem convinced, though. In fact, he headed over to a nearby dispenser and spread some of what appeared to be hand sanitizer onto his hands and up his arms.

“Great. You rinsed yourself. Go take a shower,” he ordered, looking a little grossed out.

Nico figured he had to oblige, otherwise the entire Apollo cabin might kill him at Will’s request. He sighed and reached over to his bag, pulling out a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, and his undergarments. He blushed a bit while picking them up; of course, Will's brother had chosen the very few pairs of briefs Nico owned to bring.

Nico stuck his head out from behind the curtain, making sure there was no one talking about him this time, before making his way into the bathroom.

He closed the door behind him and sighed, setting the outfit onto the counter. He looked at himself in the mirror; his face had a few newer scratches on it from the battle, but it was otherwise unharmed. He mainly just looked tired and malnourished, which was normal for him.

He undressed himself, stretching out as he did. Sleep still hadn’t entirely worn off at that point, and it was nice to get his blood pumping a bit. He piled his dirty clothing into the corner as he stripped and then turned the handle to the shower, taking a second to learn how to make it hotter or colder. He waited until it reached the perfect temperature, forcing himself to feel how cold the water was until it slowly warmed up.

Nico spared another glance at himself in the mirror before he stepped into the shower. He was painfully thin, even though Reyna and Hedge had forced him to eat as much as they could while making the journey back. It was honestly a bit gross—he could probably count all of his ribs if he put effort into it.

He decided not to.

Once the temperature was finally right, Nico stepped into the stream. As much as he put up a front, he really did love showering. From what he remembered, while he was growing up, he had been really clean, and his general tidiness hadn’t diminished while he was homeless. He just grew used to being dirty.

After a minute of basking in the warm water, Nico reached out to the shampoo sitting on the shelf. He poured a good amount into his hand and started lathering his hair. It must have been absolutely disgusting, the soap didn’t seem to bubble at all. It usually never did the first two times Nico soaped up his head, but by the third or fourth time his hair was clean enough to pass. Once he was finished with that, Nico investigated the other bottles available. Conditioner seemed like a good bet, it was tough to comb out the curls he had if he didn’t use it.

While he let the conditioner set, Nico grabbed a washcloth and a bar of soap. He then spent a good ten minutes scrubbing every inch of his body as hard as he could. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he looked pink, but clean. It felt nice.

Nico rinsed the conditioner out of his hair, and was done cleaning himself, but the warm water felt nice. He was sure that he’d have access to the shower again if he needed to, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying it while he could. Call it a habit.

After one last minute of standing under the water, Nico finally turned it off. He grabbed a towel and dried off his body before turning his attention to his hair. He toweled it dry as best he could, but knew it was a bit fruitless.

He then started redressing himself. The clean clothing felt nice against clean skin. Nico enjoyed the feeling. It really had been a while since he had felt this clean.

One last look into the mirror revealed just how pink his skin was. Nico sighed and left the bathroom.

As the cool air hit his skin, Nico called out, “Will! I’m done.”

“Will is helping another camper at the moment,” an unknown voice said. “She accidentally shot herself in the foot with an arrow.”

Nico started a bit, his eyes jumping to a nearby room, where it sounded like the voices had originated from. Nico tentatively pulled back the curtain, finding two people sitting there. One, the boy who had spoken and was smiling almost devilishly, and a girl, who wore a similar smile to the boy.

“Who are you?” Nico asked, getting needlessly defensive. He forced himself to relax, these kids probably wasn’t going to hurt him.

“My name is Cecil, and this is Lou Ellen.”

“I’m Nico,” he said.

“We know,” Cecil replied with a smirk.

Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. “You know?”

“Will talks about you. A lot,” the girl, Lou Ellen, said.

“Yeah, almost too much. It’s annoying.” Cecil snickered as he spoke.

“Why does he talk about me?” Nico asked, the sense of uneasiness not leaving. Was he annoying to Will? Probably, since he wasn’t the healthiest patient Will had ever seen.

Cecil rolled his eyes.“He claims it’s because he’s worried for you, with you being his patient and all.”

“Oh.”

“Does that disappoint you?” Lou Ellen asked. Nico could hear the smirk in her voice.

Nico stared at her, his eyes wide with shock. “Gods, no! Why would it disappoint me?”

Lou Ellen smiled. “No reason,” she paused, then her smile turned devilish. “Your dad is Hades, right? Does he hear it when someone uses ‘Holy Hades’ as an expression?”

Nico had to admit, he wasn’t expecting that question to be next. “I… I don’t know. He never really mentions it when I’m down there. I suppose I can ask, next time I see him,” he suggested, shrugging a bit.

Both of the other demigods’ jaws dropped.

“You see him?” Cecil asked. “Enough to know there’s a next time?” 

“He’s my dad; of course I’d see him,” Nico replied. Hades was likely a bit worried about him, actually. He hadn’t popped in for a while.

“I’ve never met Hermes.” Cecil’s voice sounded a bit hurt.

“I’ve only seen Hecate once,” Lou Ellen added. “Most godly parents aren’t that involved with their kids’ lives.”

“I knew that much, but they don’t ever stop by?” Nico asked. “Not even in dreams or anything? Hades used to use my dreams to make sure I wasn’t dead; I guess I got too close a few times.” Nico glanced around. He wanted to sit down, so he was grateful when he found a chair sitting nearby. Nico took it for himself, then turned back to Cecil and Lou Ellen to find their eyes trained on him. “What?”

“Oh my gods.”

“What?” Nico repeated, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

Lou Ellen laughed. “You’re so much more badass than we realized.”

“Thanks?”

“No problem.”

Nico sighed. Apparently no one in this building understood sarcasm. He decided to change the topic; he hated talking about himself and he had a feeling that was the direction in which the conversation was heading.

“Why are you here?” Nico asked, then realized that might be interpreted as rude to most people. “I mean, like, in the infirmary. You don’t look injured, or sick, or anything.”

“Cecil got a concussion,” Lou Ellen explained. “Pretty nasty one, too, so he has to stay here for monitoring.”

“Oh.”

“How about you?” Cecil asked. “You seem well enough. Plus, you got to use the Apollo cabin bathroom, so you’re important.”

“Will made me take a shower. One doesn’t get that opportunity often while shadow travelling across continents or while living on the streets.”

“Touche.” Cecil said with a laugh. “Why is Will forcing you to be here, though?”

Nico grimaced—remembering why he needed to stay under Will’s watch wasn’t the most fun. He tried to play it off to Reyna and Hedge, and then again with Will, but melting to shadows had actually been pretty scary. Nico had finally found people he considered friends, only for the opportunity of him being taken away from them being presented. Slowly, he answered, “I started melting into shadows. Will wants to make sure I don’t disappear again, I guess.”

Cecil and Lou Ellen paused, and Nico thought he scared them off. He was about to excuse himself, saying he needed to sleep, but then Cecil spoke up again. 

“Bad. Ass.”

That caught Nico off guard.

“Not really,” he squeaked out, not sure how else to reply. How do you tell people casually that something they thought was cool was one of the scariest experiences of your life?

“Whatever you say,” Lou Ellen responded, laughing a bit.

“And I do say!” Nico was getting a bit frustrated. “I am being kept here against my will because I couldn't keep it—couldn’t keep myself—together. Not super badass in my book.”

“Whatever you say,” Lou Ellen repeated.

Nico wanted to excuse himself again, but something told him that neither Cecil nor Lou Ellen would allow him to, so he stayed and talked until Will told him to get to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets bored and starts helping out around the infirmary.

“Nico? Where are you?”

Nico jumped a bit as he heard his name being called. He turned his head, trying to find the source.

Will’s head popped into the small room in which Nico, Cecil, and Lou Ellen were sitting, obviously concerned. “Why are you in here again?” he asked, eyes moving between the three of them.

Nico shrugged. He had found himself beginning to actually like the other two demigods this past day—they were entertaining, and Nico could use a laugh.

“I couldn’t find you,” he said simply. He wasn’t in the wrong, was he?

“So you decide to run away?” Will asked incredulously.

“I didn’t run away!” Nico protested. “I’ve been here, with Cecil and Lou Ellen.”

“It’s true. We’ve been playing friends,” Cecil said with a laugh. He seemed to be spurring Will on, asking for him to get more frazzled.

“Shut up, Cecil,” Will snapped. He took a deep breath—Nico thought he must have been counting to 10 in his head. “Nico, you know you’re a flight risk,” he continued.

Nico scowled in response. “I told you I wasn’t going to leave! I’ve been here for two days doing absolutely nothing, I’m bored. Sue me.” He crossed his arms over his chest. How was it fair that Will got to keep using that against him?

“You’re bored?” Will asked, as if he hasn’t realized Nico could be.

“Why are you a flight risk, Nico?” Cecil asked at the same time.

Nico decided to ignore Will for the time being, answering Cecil first. “Because I ran away, like, five times.” He paused, smiling as Cecil and Lou Ellen’s faces slacked with surprise. He carried on with his explanation. “Not my fault, though, Percy was being a douche, like, four of the five times.”

Cecil barked out a laugh, as uncomfortable as he seemed. “That’s understandable, Percy can probably be a bit much sometimes. I’m satisfied; carry on with your interrogation, Will.”

Will scowled at Cecil. “I didn’t need your permission to interrogate my patient. Nico, come on. You should have just told me if you were bored. Not go and hide from me.”

“I wasn’t hiding! Cecil and Lou Ellen have been with me the whole time,” Nico said, smirking as he brought up Cecil and Lou Ellen again. Will didn’t seem to be too happy that they were talking, so why not play with that fact?

“Whatever,” Will replied, getting defensive.

Nico just amped the teasing up.

“So, if I can’t talk to my new friends, what can I do?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “Stare at the ceiling? Ooh, how about count the floorboards?”

Will sighed, releasing the tension in his body. “Okay, fine, I get it.”

“Oh! I know, I can live up to the fears everyone here has and kill a camper. Bring her soul to my dad, I’m sure they’d love that.”

Nico knew that joke was a little far, but it didn’t hurt to make it. It was at his own expense, anyways. He didn’t expect Will to freeze up, his expression growing concerned once more.

“No one thinks you’re gonna kill someone,” he murmured.

Nico and Will stared at each other for a second before Lou Ellen decided to break the silence.

“I did, before I started talking to him,” she said with a smirk.

“Me too,” Cecil piped in, a wide smile on his face. Nico smiled at the two of them—they were actually pretty funny.

Will didn’t seem to think so. “Oh, shut up. Who asked you two?” 

“No one!” Cecil said with a laugh. “But what’s what makes it fun.”

Will sighed again. “Ignore them, Nico. No one thought you were gonna kill anyone.” Will paused to glare at Cecil and Lou Ellen again, daring them to make a comment before he continued. “But if you’re that bored, you can help me out with organizing and cleaning. You don’t know how to do first aid or anything, but we could train you later, if you wanted. How does that sound?”

Nico shrugged. “I guess that works.”

Doing chores was definitely better than sitting around doing nothing and getting lost in his thoughts.

Will smiled proudly. “Alright then. Here. You can start out by collecting dirty laundry for me.”

Nico nodded and waved goodbye to Cecil and Lou Ellen with a promise to see them later. They had told him earlier that Will, while easily annoyed by the two of them, was actually a really good friend. The stress of taking care of campers usually made him insufferable. Nico had kind of figured that out for himself; Will seemed so nice and pretty funny earlier. On the battlefield, especially, he had been hilarious when apologizing to Nico about grabbing his hands after helping Mellie give birth.

He walked around from room to room, mostly staying quiet as he picked up people’s towels and blankets. Most people paid him no attention, which helped reassure Nico that Will had been right about no one being scared of him. But then every so often, there was a camper or two who shied away from him as he got closer. It came with the lineage, he supposed.

As Nico worked, he wondered if he’d get to see Will outside of the infirmary again, then berated himself. Of course he would, it was stupid to think otherwise. The question was whether or not Will wanted to see him outside of the infirmary, which was not a train of thought Nico wanted to follow. But then the alternative hit hmi: did he want to see Will outside of the infirmary? That thought startled Nico a bit.

Did he want to see Will?

That train of thought seemed even more dangerous than the one Nico had been previously avoiding.

He had a job to do, anyways. He needed to focus on that, not Will.

“Hey, sorry to intrude, I’m just coming in to pick up your laundry,” Nico said, leaning over to pick up a towel that was on the floor.

One of the two demigods in the room, the only one awake, looked at him in shock and asked, “They’re having you do that?”

Nico shrugged, a small smile on his lips. “Yeah, I guess I’m doing fine; Will just wants me to stick around. It’s okay if I’m on my feet.”

She stared at him, the look of shock fading and turning into horror. “No, I don’t care about that!” she screeched, moving to stand in between Nico and the girl passed out on the bed. “Lily’s really hurt and you’re allowed to just walk around?”

Nico hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh.”

The girl continued, seeming offended that Nico had even tried coming near her friend. “Go away!” she yelled. “You’re going to hurt her!”

Out of nowhere, it seemed, Will entered the small room, arms crossed.

“What’s happening here?” he asked, eyes scanning the girl standing in the middle of the room.

Nico kept his eyes trained on his shoes. “Nothing’s happening.”

The girl clearly had a different opinion. “He’s going to hurt Lily!” she screeched, turning to face Will. “You’re the head of the infirmary, how could you let walking death in here! Don’t you understand how that is going to affect the other patients?”

She pointed a lot, first at Will, then Nico, then back to Will. Nico stood where he was, scared to leave in case anyone else overheard and decided they agreed and wanted to join in. He felt trapped.

Will knew what to do, though.

“Nico needs medical attention just as much as Lily and everyone else here.” He paused. “You are just here to see her, right?”

The girl nodded, wary of doing so, it seemed. “That would be correct.”

Will smiled smugly. “Then I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You are causing stress to at least two patients here and disrupting our work.”

Nico gasped. “Will, she doesn’t have to—”

“You need to be here; she doesn’t,” Will said. “She can leave if she feels that strongly.”

She seemed just as surprised as Nico was. “You’re seriously kicking me out? My mother is—”

Will cut her off. “Frankly, I don’t care who your mom is. My dad is Apollo, though, and I know what is best for my patients.” He watched her for a second, and she didn’t respond. “Can I trust you to make your way out of here on your own, or should I call Kayla over to escort you?”

Nico stood still, his mouth hanging open slightly as she made a frustrated sound and then left the small room. Once she was gone, Nico turned to Will, feeling small.

“Thank you,” he murmured, a hint of a smile returning to his lips.

Will shrugged, the tension seeping out of him as he walked over to check on the patient. “Don’t worry. She’s been complaining about the way we do things for days; now we just have an excuse to kick her out. I should be thanking you, really.”

Nico nodded, not sure what else to do. “I…I’ll get back to work?” he asked, not sure if Will actually wanted him here after that, or if he was putting on a face.

It seemed that he did, though.

“If you want to. Thanks for helping out!”

Nico nodded again and left the small room, returning to the task Will had set for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooo chapter 3!
> 
> I'm really enjoying writing this fic and I hope you guys like reading it.
> 
> My beta reader is also literally the best?? Like she makes all my chapters infinitely better than I would have done.
> 
> Finally, as my last two end notes have said: leave me a comment, I'm very lonely.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets to leave the infirmary and talks to Percy.

Nico sat on the floor, surrounded by plastic containers.

Will had tasked him with making first aid kits for the cabins today. Admittedly, that wasn’t what Nico had wanted to hear when he walked over to Will when he woke up; he had intended to ask about leaving the infirmary. But when Will had looked at him, almost begging for him to help, he couldn’t say no.

And so, he had been building first aid kits all morning. It took so much longer than he would have liked, seeing as each cabin had its own set of challenges to be considered. The Hephaestus cabin, for instance, needed a lot more burn cream than the Demeter cabin, and the Athena cabin apparently needed a ton of bandaids for the amount of paper cuts and accidental sharp-object impalings they tended to encounter. The Apollo cabin needed next to no aloe and sunscreen, and the Hermes cabin needed as much of everything as they could give.

Will had stressed how important it was that Nico needed to pay attention to who asked for what as well as what he had suggested (some of the cabins were too proud to admit they needed certain items).

The most awkward part of the process was when Nico didn’t know what a few particular items were used for, and Will had to explain to him what a tampon and a pad were.

Putting that mortifying memory aside, Nico opened up another ace bandage box and checked to make sure that both clips were attached to the cloth before fitting it into one of the kits. He was so close to being finished.

“You almost done in there, Nico?” Will asked, poking his head through the door and bearing his usual smile.

Nico nodded, shutting the box with a click. “I have, like, two more left,” he said, pulling the next one closer to him.

“Sounds good,” Will said, checking over the work. “Thank you, again. It’s helped so much having an extra set of hands that don’t need to heal.”

Nico nodded, not sure what to say to that. He decided to change the subject. “It’s my last day. Day three. I get to go back to my cabin later, right?” he asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.

Will’s smile faded. “Oh, uh, yeah, I guess it is.” It was as if the thought hadn’t occurred to Will, but Nico didn’t let that deter him.

“I get to go. Right?” he repeated, starting to fill the next box.

“Yeah.” Will paused. “When you’re done with the first aid kits, meet me in your room.”

Nico smiled. He couldn’t wait to be able to leave. He liked it here, but it was so stuffy, and obviously nobody wanted him around except Will, and maybe Cecil and Lou Ellen. Plus, the amount of pain and injury Nico could feel due to his son-of-Hades senses was…disheartening, to say the least.

Nico nodded and got to work, quickly but meticulously filling the last two boxes. The first was easier—the Demeter cabin got a lot of teas and things along those lines, as well as a package of band-aids and an ace bandage. The Hermes cabin’s list of materials was quite long, however, and Nico almost feared that they would need two boxes—one for the actual Hermes kid injuries as well as the basic treatments for kids who were undetermined. Fortunately, Will had recommended that Nico use the largest box for that cabin, so everything fit, but just barely. He had a feeling he’d be refilling this one again soon.

As soon as he finished, he packed the boxes onto a cart and wheeled them over to where Will was sitting. He had a pile of paperwork sitting in front of him, which was obviously stressing him out.

“Alright, Will,” he announced. “They’re all finished.”

Will raised his head and nodded. “Okay, perfect. Sit down; I’ll do one last vitals check, and then you’re free to go.”

Nico did as he was told and held out his arm for Will to take. They went through the usual—blood pressure and reflexes, listening to his breathing, and checking his eyes, ears, and nose.

Will asked him a few questions similar to those from before, then nodded and looked at his clipboard.

“Promise me you’ll be back if you aren’t feeling well?” He sounded worried and Nico wasn’t sure how to handle that.

“I promise,” he said, nodding.

“And that you’ll try to eat at least two meals a day? I showed you the food groups chart—how much you need to eat daily.”

“I promise.”

“And sleep more! Come see me if you need medication to help with that.”

“Okay.”

“And—”

Nico sighed, cutting him off. “I’ll take care of myself, Will. I know how to.”

That seemed to catch him off guard. “I was gonna say…” He paused. “Come back to help out. We like you here.”

“Oh.” Now it was Nico’s turn to be stunned speechless. He really hadn’t expected Will to ask him to come back to help, and he certainly hadn’t expected the request to sound so genuine. His voice was also strangely quiet and monotone, but Nico really had no idea how to interpret that, so he ignored it. “Um, yeah, okay.”

“Okay?” Will sounded like he was searching for confirmation.

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you at dinner, then.”

“Okay.”

“Bye, Nico.”

“Okay. Bye.”

Nico rose from the bed in which he had spent his past three days, waved to Will one last time, and then turned and walked out of the infirmary.

He noticed that it was nearly lunch time and realized that he was actually quite hungry. This kind of shocked him, but he assumed that since Will had been feeding him consistently—and feeding him healthy meals at that—he would start getting used to it.

Nico turned towards the dining pavilion and found that it was decently full. Lunch was an any-time event; the campers were allowed to eat whenever their schedules permitted it. As Nico started heading towards his table, he heard a shout that pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Nico! Hey, Nico!”

“Oh, gods,” he murmured. That was not a voice Nico wanted to hear.

“Nico!” Percy yelled again, now waving his hands to get his attention, as if most of the pavilion wasn’t staring at him already. “Sit over here with us!”

Annabeth, from her seat next to him, rolled her eyes and grabbed Percy’s hand out of the air. “Percy, calm down. He doesn’t have to sit with us if he doesn’t want to.”

Percy just laughed in response. “See, you’re right,” he said, using his other hand to wave him over “but also, he has to sit with us.”

Nico sighed. Did he really have a choice?

“What do you want, Percy?” he asked, walking over but not yet sitting down.

“I just want to hang out with my friend,” he replied. Then he gestured to the others sat beside him. “I’m sure everyone else here does, too.”

“It would be nice to talk to you,” Jason agreed, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah,” Percy exclaimed. “It's been three whole days!”

Nico rolled his eyes and crossed his arms defensively. “You two idiots know I was allowed visitors in the infirmary, right? It’s not my fault neither of you two decided to come see me.”

“Well, you didn’t tell us that we could!”

“How was I supposed to?”

“Fair. But I still missed you.”

Nico huffed and sat down. “Annabeth, your boyfriend is annoying me.”

Annabeth laughed a bit, pulling her boyfriend, who had been trying to hug Nico from across the table, back by the hand. “Am I supposed to be surprised by that?” she asked, clearly a little irritated herself. She seemed more amused, though, whereas Nico was considerably less so.

“Rude,” Percy said.

Nico ignored him and turned to Annabeth and Jason. “What’s for lunch, anyway?” he asked, looking at their plates.

Piper was the one who answered, though. “Sandwiches, some BBQ, a few salads, the usual stuff. Oh, and they have hot dogs today, too!”

“That…sounds great.” It did not, but Nico was hungry. “I’ll be right back.”

Nico stood up from the table again and made his way over to the buffet table. The food looked decent, and the BBQ actually smelled good. His stomach grumbled again and he sighed. Gods, what had Will done to him?

He put an empty bun onto his plate and scooped some pulled pork onto it. That would likely do for protein, and the veggies looked like they would actually taste good. Nico was a little wary of it all, as he never saw this food getting cooked, but everyone else was eating it, so it would have to do.

He put a few other small things onto his plate, including an apple and a small handful of potato chips, and then made his way back to the table where his friends were seated.

“Actually eating something of substance today, I see?” Jason asked, eyeing Nico’s plate.

“Shut up, Jason,” he replied. He took a bite of the sandwich and he had to admit—it tasted pretty good. “Will is making me.”

Jason’s eyebrow raised. “Will?”

“Yeah, the Apollo kid.”

 

Percy and Annabeth paused in their banter when Nico said Will’s name. “How is he doing?” Percy asked. “Last time there was a war, he stressed himself out too much.”

 

The solemness of his question was odd, so Nico could only answer truthfully. “I...don’t really know. He seemed tired, but Cecil and Lou Ellen told me he’s usually like that.”

“That’s good,” Percy said. “I feel bad for him. You know he became the head of the Apollo cabin back then, after that war? He was, what, thirteen?” Percy looked at Annabeth for confirmation, and she nodded with a sigh.

“Wow, really?” Jason seemed surprised.

“Yeah. A lot of current cabin heads started when they were very young,” Percy explained, and Nico vaguely remembered learning that Annabeth had become the cabin leader at a young age as well.

Nico listened to the others carry on the conversation about other head counselors and campers in general, but he didn’t feel the need to input. He didn’t know anybody very well, and he didn’t feel like he could make judgements about whether or not they were good leaders.

He hadn’t known that Will had become a counselor so young. Nico barely remembered Will from back then—he really only remembered his dad being at Mount Olympus and Percy saving the day, but he could vaguely recall a younger Will Solace running around and trying to heal everybody.

Nico knew that Will used to have older siblings. That must have meant they had died that day.

Percy’s voice pulled Nico out of his thoughts.

“Hey, Neeks, can we talk?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure?” Nico replied.

Percy looked at the rest of the group, then grabbed onto Nico’s wrist and pulled him out of the pavilion. The only thing stopping Nico from cutting his arm off was the fact that Percy looked quite serious and a little concerned. He figured it would be more fair to hear Percy out, regardless of how little he liked being dragged around.

Percy opened his mouth, closed it and thought for a second, and then opened it again. “Feel free to walk away if you don’t want to answer, but I need to ask this.” He hesitated again. “You used to like me?”

Nico was suspicious of this conversation from the start, but now he knew exactly why he had the right to be. “Percy, that was a while ago, and I don’t—”

“Nico, I thought you hated me,” Percy cut in. “Actually, to be more specific, I thought you wanted to kill me.”

Nico pondered that for a second, and then he smiled a little bit. “I did. But I guess I also admired you. A lot.”

Percy smirked. “Obviously.” 

“Shut up,” Nico said, punching his arm lightly. “You were so cool to me. You saved the day, and fought a monster, and protected me.”

“But you wanted me dead,” Percy said, his smile fading. He seemed to toss that around his mind for a minute. Then he spoke, in a voice so small Nico could barely hear it. “I think I know why. I think I would have let you kill me.”

“What?”

“After Bianca died, I couldn’t forgive myself.” 

No, Nico told himself. He wasn’t hearing this. 

But Percy continued. “I promised you that I’d protect her and I failed.” 

He couldn’t deal with this, it wasn’t fair. 

“I ended up getting Annabeth back in the end, but I failed that quest.” 

Gods, what did Nico do to deserve this? 

“I lost Bianca and Zoe.”

Nico decided enough was enough. He could handle talking to Percy about his crush. That was difficult,but he had already done it before, so it wasn’t anything new. But talking about his sister? Percy feeling like a failure? Her…her death?

Nico ran as fast as he could to his cabin. If it had been any darker out he would have completely ignored Will’s demands and shadow traveled. He didn’t care.

That wasn’t fair. Percy had no right to bring her up like that. As if the conversation called for it.

Nico didn’t show up for dinner that day, he couldn’t. He stayed in his cabin and hid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm posting this a little later than usual, I had surgery yesterday and it beat my ass.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets frustrated when he doesn't understand Will.

Nico walked into the infirmary a few days later and immediately headed over to the front desk. Austin’s head popped up. He looked a little confused at first but smiled when he realized it was Nico.

“Hey, look who’s back!” he said with a laugh.

Nico glanced around, pretending to be surprised. “I am? How did I get here?”

“Shut up.” Austin laughed again. “Will is with a patient; wanna help me organize paperwork?”

“Sure,” Nico said. He dropped the act, settling into a seat behind the desk next to Austin. “But only until Will tells me otherwise.”

Austin nodded knowingly. “As we all do.”

Nico laughed a bit, grabbing half of the stack of papers that Austin was working on. It mainly just needed to be filed, but sometimes Nico had to fill in missing information that one of the Apollo campers had neglected to write. 

After a few minutes, Nico glanced over at Austin. “Thanks for getting my clothing the other day, by the way.”

He shrugged. “Will told me to.”

“You could have made Kayla do it,” Nico reasoned, flipping a page into the completed pile.

Austin snorted. “I probably should have. Your cabin is scary.”

“It’s not that scary,” Nico replied, mildly offended.

“As if!” Austin looked up from the sheet he was filling out. “Even if you didn’t have skulls all over the place, the decoration is horrible.” He signed the sheet he was working on and shuddered. “I also had to search for your underwear. You call that ‘not scary’?”

Nico winced in response; he had forced himself to forget about that. “Oh, gods, don’t bring that up ever again.”

“Happily.”

He continued working in silence for another minute until one of the forms in his stack caused him to do a double-take. “Did this kid really get his arms cut off?”

“Oh, yeah. It was so disgusting,” Austin said. He didn’t look up from the paper he was working on, but his feelings toward the ordeal were clear.

Nico was about to file the paper, but he paused. He didn’t have any recent memory of a spike in blood loss or anyone nearing death. “How did I not feel that happening?” he asked, checking the page again.

“Will stepped in pretty quickly,” Austin explained. “We had put tourniquets on him to stop the blood flow, and Will more or less burnt out to keep him alive.”

Nico felt jealous, but he didn’t understand why. “Wow, really?”

“Yeah, but like I said, it was absolutely disgusting.”

He shrugged. “If you say so.”

Austin looked up at him, eyebrows raised. “Are you saying you don’t think it would be totally gross?”

“I’ve seen worse. Probably inflicted it, too.”

Austin didn’t seem happy with that response, but didn’t question it.

“Ayy! Death Breath is back!”

Nico glanced toward the door, recognizing the voice. “Don’t call me that, Cecil.”

“Dead man walking?” Cecil asked, entering the room with a grin on his face.

“No.”

“Sunshine?”

“Austin, am I allowed to decapitate him?”

Austin simply laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, Will would say no to that. Wouldn’t heal his concussion.”

“Damn.”

“That’s mean,” Cecil said with a frown, leaning on the desk.

Nico glared at his new friend. “Call me Sunshine and I’ll actually show you mean.”

“I kid, Nico, I kid.” Cecil paused. “Please don’t kill me.”

“Maybe,” Nico said with a smirk.

“Good enough.” Cecil smiled widely, looking closer at the papers Nico was working on. “Whatcha up to today?”

“Paperwork. Apparently some kid got his arms cut off the other day?” Nico asked, wondering if Cecil had known.

“Oh, yeah, Paolo. That was gross.”

“That’s what I said!” Austin chimed.

“He was put in your old room, Nico. I think Will stayed up all night.”

Nico frowned again at that. Obviously Will would have had to stay up and take care of the other demigod, it was his job. Nico felt ridiculously irked by the thought, though.

Just then, as if Nico has summoned him, Will appeared in the doorway.

“Hey, Nico!” he greeted as he walked in. “I didn’t know you were here already.” 

“Oh, hey,” Nico replied.

Will smiled despite his lack of warmth. “Austin put you to work, then?”

“Yeah.” Nico motioned towards the papers he was currently organizing. “I’ve been doing paperwork for you guys.”

“Thanks. We really appreciate it, I promise..”

Will then moved so that he was behind Nico and leaned over to look at the papers. His hand rested on Nico’s shoulder, and Nico could practically feel his breath on his neck. When he turned to look at his face, hoping to gain at least a little understanding as to what his intentions were, the interaction was over and he was left with the ghost of Will’s fingertips.

“Uh, yeah, no...no problem,” he replied eloquently.

Will looked considerably more frustrated than he had when he first walked in. “Alright, well then. When you’re done with this, come find me, alright?”

“Okay.”

Nico watched as he left, a small scowl on his lips. Will had seemed happy, at least, until he looked at the work he was doing.

He decided that enough was enough.

“What am I doing wrong?” he asked abruptly.

Austin paused, glancing at Nico. “What do you mean?”

“Why is he so frustrated with me?”

“Holy Hera, you think he’s frustrated?” Austin asked with a laugh, which was quickly cut short when Nico glared at him.

“Obviously. That—” Nico gestured towards where Will had just exited. “—didn’t look happy.”

Austin chuckled again, but choked himself off before Nico got the chance to. “And the only two emotions are frustrated and happy?” he asked.

Nico hated the knowing grin on his face. “Shut up, you know what I mean!”

“I can guess.” Austin shook his head. “Please indulge us, though, why is he frustrated?”

It didn’t take long to think of the reasons. “I’m...not doing well enough around here? Or...maybe he doesn’t want me to help out anymore.”

Austin sighed, looked at the paperwork, and then set down his pen and turned to fully face Nico. “I promise you you’re wrong, but we will go with what you said here. How aren’t you helping out enough?”

“I only show up for around two hours a day,” Nico began. “I only get one or two tasks done every time I show up.”

“You’re the only camper that volunteers to help,” Austin replied. “Apollo cabin has to be here or we clean the cabin or get no dessert as punishment, and the few other campers here have to help, Leo and the Hephaestus cabin do prosthetics if needed, Piper and Drew calm patients down, et cetera. Everyone who is here has to be, except you.”

“So?” Nico didn’t see why that was important to bring up. In fact, it only served to make him feel more useless. Everyone else has a reason to be there. He didn’t.

Austin didn’t seem to think so.

“So you’re a huge help no matter how much you do!” he replied, as if it had been obvious the whole time.

“Okay, then Will just doesn’t want me around,” Nico said. “Great. Thanks for making me feel better!”

“Nico, he wants you around. I promise you.”

“He doesn’t talk to me. He gets angry when I’m talking to you guys.” Nico couldn’t meet Austin’s eyes. “He doesn’t want me to be here.”

Austin took a deep breath before speaking again, and when he did, his voice had calmed down and quieted. “You know you don’t talk to him either, right?”

Nico opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it shut. “I try to,” he murmured after a few seconds.

“And so does he.” Austin glanced at the rest of the papers and then back up at him. “You’re done with paperwork; go find Will.”

“Fine.”

Nico slid back his chair, frustrated with Austin, Will, and himself. How could Austin say that Will wanted him around? How did he know for certain? Unless Will had told him otherwise—but Cecil and Lou Ellen had said that Will only talked about Nico as a patient.

Nico didn’t even want to think about why else Will would talk about him. He didn’t want to have to confront how he felt about that possibility or his own emotions towards Will himself. He’d end up getting hurt again, anyways.

As Nico searched for Will, he realized that he had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. What did Austin want him to do? Was he expecting Nico to ask Will if he was wanted?

That thought appalled Nico, and he hoped it wasn’t the answer. Whatever response he got, it would be difficult to hear.

Gods. There wasn’t any topic that was safe regarding Will, was there?

After another minute of searching, Nico finally found the familiar blond head, turned away from him and towards the medicine cabinets.

“Hey, Will?” he started. “Austin told me I could be done with the paperwork. Is there anything else I could do to help out?”

Will jumped as he heard Nico, but he quickly smiled. “Oh, um, how about the closet?”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “The closet?”

“You can do it tomorrow—it needs to get organised. It’s almost dinnertime. If you’re gonna eat today, you can’t start it now. I can help you, too, if you wanna do it tomorrow.”

“Oh, um, yeah, sure.” Nico stood still, not sure of what else to do. “That sounds...fine. Is there anything else? For today, I mean.”

“I guess you could make rounds.” Will suggested, eyes darting around the infirmary. He was looking everywhere—except at Nico. “Ask people if they need anything and get it for them, make sure everyone is comfortable, that kind of thing.”

“Sure.” Nico sighed. “See you tomorrow?”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Nico left the room, wondering what Will meant by that, and what his smile meant, and if he himself really wanted to know the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NGL guys, I kinda forgot to post earlier, so I'm sorry this is late. I wasn't feeling the best, still recovering from surgery and all, and I was stupidly busy.
> 
> That being said, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! See you next week.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will organize the closet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for the chapter: Nico has a vivid panic attack and a flashback.

Nico got to the infirmary earlier than he had planned, but it already seemed to be in full swing by the time he arrived. Kayla and one of her sisters that Nico didn’t recognize were pretending to fight with a few medical tools, while Austin was showing a much younger Apollo camper how to clean up a cut on someone who looked like they had just been in a real fight.

Will was nowhere to be seen, though.

“Hey, Kayla?” Nico asked, getting her attention. “Where can I find Will?”

The girl paused her sparring for just long enough to answer that Will had already started with the closet, and then she was back to her defensive position.

It was bad fighting form, honestly, but Nico knew that he would need to give a lot more than a few pointers to fix that stance, so he made his way over to the closet.

The door was open, Nico noticed, and Will really had already started. The other boy was sitting on the floor, moving some brightly colored bottles around.

“Excited, much?” Nico teased, stepping inside. He had thought it would be worse, but he could admit, it wasn’t horrible. Yet.

“You know it,” Will joked back. “I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on…” He looked at the bottle in his hand. “High-powered disinfectant spray.”

Nico laughed a little and sat down next to him. Yeah, this wasn’t too bad.

“What can I start with?” he asked, pulling a box closer to himself. It contained a bunch of packages of band-aids ranging in size, color, and use.

Will looked over and shrugged. “You can start with those. They go on that shelf in the back.”

Nico nodded. He moved past Will, taking the box with him, and started setting them on the shelf that he had indicated.

A few minutes passed without too much of an incident. Nico had just accidentally knocked over a stack of paper towels—an easy fix—when of course, something had to happen.

The closet door slammed shut, followed by a loud laugh that was assumably either Austin or Kayla.

“What the hell?” Nico asked, standing up.

Will beat him to the door, though, turning the handle.

“It’s locked.”

Great, that’s just what Nico needed.

“It’s okay, though, we still have, like, ninety percent of the closet to go. Let’s just use this time wisely.”

Nico nodded, slumping back in the spot he had just stood up from. He really hated Austin at the moment; he had thought they were sort of becoming friends, but then he had to go and pull a prank like this.

“Can I kill Austin and Kayla when we get out, at least?” Nico asked, pulling another box of band-aids out of the large box.

Will considered it for a moment. “Ask me once we’re out.”

“Alright.” Nico replied.

The two boys continued organizing in silence, and Nico hated it. He felt like he should say something, anything, but there were no words he could think of. Occasionally, Will would hand him another box of supplies and tell Nico the general area where they should go, but otherwise? Silence.

Nico knew not to ask to shadow travel, too. Will would just yell at him, and the lecture he’d get wasn’t worth something so trivial as being locked in a closet. Nico hadn’t done it for over a week at this point, but Will was still so paranoid about Nico overdoing his powers. It was getting on his nerves, but there was no way Will would agree to him starting up again now.

And so they worked in near complete silence. At least, until—

“Did you know that I’m bi?”

“Bi—what?”

“Bisexual.”

Nico shot up so fast that he knocked over the paper towels again, this time bringing a pile of toilet paper rolls and a few cans of cleaning spray down too. He looked at the ceiling of the closet, begging any god listening to remove him from the situation. None of them responded, though, which wasn’t all that surprising.

Will had the audacity to laugh.

“Will! What in my father’s name made you think that was okay to share?”

“You...you’re my friend. I wanted you to know,” he said sheepishly.

“That’s private!” he spluttered. “I—gods! Will! What if I wasn’t—what if I didn’t think that was okay?” Nico was freaking out. Why did Will want him to know that? Why was it important?

“I thought you’d think it was okay, though.”

Nico finally looked at Will, and immediately felt guilty. He looked helpless. Nico sighed. He needed to explain. “I was born in the 1930s, Will. Most people weren’t okay with...sexuality. It didn’t even have a name back then.”

Will still seemed confused, but at least he didn’t look hurt anymore.

“I was always told to not talk about...that. And not just, um, homosexual related things, straight stuff too. Me being surprised, that wasn’t prejudice. I’m sorry.”

Will smiled. It was a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “I should have thought about that.”

Nico put back the items he knocked over and sat down gingerly.

“Remind me to schedule a sex education class for you, though. I don’t want you to knock up some girl because you don’t know anything.”

And down went the paper towels again.

About two hours later, everything in the closet was neatly stacked and sorted. Nico didn’t knock down the stack of paper towels anymore, and Will stopped talking about sexuality. The silence was comfortable when it happened, but the two ended up talking more. Will asked Nico what the 30s were like (Nico didn’t remember them much) and Nico asked Will what the early 2000s were like (lots of good video games, which made Nico shudder, and really cool TV shows).

Once Will checked everything out, making sure it was all put away properly, Nico reached to try the door again.

The handle still didn’t move.

Nico tried again, and then a third time.

They were really trapped.

Once that thought hit, so did the vision.

Suddenly, Nico saw the lid of a jar, too high for him to even try to reach it. Blinding lights made shadows disappear. Two pairs of giant eyes staring at him made him vulnerable.

The closet flashed into his vision for a second, but then he was right back in the jar. It felt so real, like it was happening right now.

Nico was back in the Jar.

“What do you want with me?” he asked the Giants. If he could negotiate, maybe they’d let him go.

They only laughed at him and left.

The air was thin already, there was no way Nico would last more than a few hours in there, but he was lucky enough to know of the catatonic state that the children of Hades could do.

Nico could feel himself collapse to the bottom of the jar, completely immobile. He remembered going through sleep paralysis a few times after he’d run away, but this was completely different. He felt dead. Truly, completely dead. His breathing all but stopped, his heart rate slowed so much that every limb felt numb. But he was completely conscious. He could remember every painstaking second, only able to watch as the Giants poked and prodded at him.

The next thing Nico knew, he was in an infirmary bed, being force fed ambrosia and wrapped in a warm blanket. Austin and Kayla sat in chairs at the foot of the bed, guilt and concern clear in their expressions. Piper held his hand, and she was whispering gently into Nico’s ear, then hugged him as soon as she realized he was looking at her.

Nico looked to the other side of him, where Will was standing. The sight broke his heart—Will had fresh tears running down his face as he held the rest of a square of ambrosia, his own hands shaking like Nico’s.

“Nico?” Kayla asked, and Nico jumped a bit. He looked at the girl, who now hung her head in shame.

Austin looked just about the same, though he kept his eye contact with Nico. “We are so sorry. We wanted you two to talk. We didn’t know.”

Nico opened his mouth to speak, but his throat felt raw. Piper shushed him, anyways, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

“You were having a panic attack, Nico. You’re safe now, though.” Her voice was laden with charmspeak. Nico felt the sense of safety wash over him, but it felt superficial. “Do you need anything?”

Nico shook his head, pulling his hand from hers. He pulled the blanket a bit tighter around his body, suddenly hating how everyone was looking at him.

After a minute, Will, still crying, told Austin and Kayla to go back to the cabin, and thanked Piper for her help. She nodded, kissed Nico on the forehead, and trailed behind the two Apollo siblings.

Once they were alone, Will turned back to Nico and sat on the bed.

“Can I hug you?”

Nico nodded.

Will wrapped his arms around him, gently at first, but soon hugged him tighter. It was really comforting. Will was a great hugger, Nico noted.

“Would you mind spending the night here? Your breathing got really shallow. It felt like you were dying for a few minutes. I just...I want to make sure you’re okay.”

Nico nodded again.

“Thank you.”

Will finally let go of him, and then he smiled and wiped away his tears. He stood to leave the room, but Nico didn’t want him to.

“Will?” he started, wincing at how rough his voice sounded. “I...I was in the Jar.”

It hurt to remember, but at least this time it didn’t throw him into a flashback.

“What jar?” Will asked, sitting back down on the bed. It was obvious that he was relieved that Nico wanted to talk.

“After Tartarus. I was kidnapped, kept in a Jar. I can’t really remember how long.” That was a lie. He had been in that Jar for four days, thirteen hours, and twenty-two minutes. “I did what I could to survive, there wasn’t much air and—”

Nico choked as he started to cry again. It hurt to remember. It hurt to describe what happened. No one knew, no one understood, and Nico prayed to every god that existed that no one else would ever need to know.

Will hugged Nico again, but when he let go, he didn’t leave. He stayed by Nico’s side for the rest of the night, only leaving to pull another bed into the same room to sleep there beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting a bit early because I have camp all day tomorrow, then a shift for 5 hours almost immediately afterwards so yeah.
> 
> Apparently I named the first chapter, too? Oops, forgot about that.
> 
> Finally! I have a question for you guys: if I made a Patreon, would you guys become patrons? I'd post things like the unedited versions of chapters (so you guys can see just how much my editor does for my (ILY and thank you!)) and chapter blurbs, and I'd even post the chapter a day early for you guys. I'd also probably post other story ideas, write oneshots for you guys, and I'd love to talk to you all.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think, if you'd become a patron or what kind of stuff you'd like to see!
> 
> And, as always, Leave me a comment, I'm very lonely.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets frustrated and fights Percy and Jason.

“Hey, Nico? Where are you going?”

Nico looked back at Will, a big box of supplies in his arms. “I’m putting these away. They came in this morning.”

Will’s eyes widened and he rushed over, taking the box from Nico’s arms.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a laugh, already starting to walk towards the closet. “You can, um, go work on filing papers? They need to get done.”

Nico frowned. Will had just stopped filing papers to take the box he had been carrying. He sighed, frustrated, and made his way over to the stack of papers. There was a considerable amount to do, seeing as the Ares cabin had gotten into a fight with Hermes the other day. It had been a sight to see, but there were countless injuries that the Apollo cabin needed to heal.

“Austin, give me some of those,” Nico said, sitting down next to him.

Austin nodded, not speaking as he split the pile in two. Except...the portion he handed to Nico was much smaller than his own.

Fine. Whatever. It just meant that Nico could go do something else afterwards.

After a few minutes, though, apparently the silence Nico was enjoying was too much for Austin.

“Hey, man,” he said, voice low and gentle. “I know you already said it was okay and everything, but I’m really sorry.” 

That was enough.

Nico slammed down his pen, pushed his chair back, flipped off Austin and then Will when he rushed over, and then left the infirmary.

He stormed over to the training field. He could let his anger out on a few practice dummies. Fight now, talk to Will later.

Once Nico reached the field, though, he was surprised to see that Percy and Jason were already there. They were obviously goofing off more than actually training; neither of them were wearing armour and they were both laughing. At least they were until Percy noticed Nico stalking towards them.

“Woah, I thought we established that you didn’t want to kill me,” Percy joked, though he sounded genuinely nervous.

Nico laughed, but it only seem to put Percy and Jason that much more on edge.

“Don’t worry,” he assured. “I’m only going to kill Will, Austin, and Kayla.”

“I thought we liked Will,” Jason said, leaning on his sword.

Nico sighed. “We do. I do. I think.”

“So why are we killing him? And his siblings?”

“They keep treating me like I’m made of glass!”

Jason looked at the ground, and Nico could practically see the gears turning in his head.

“Piper told me about your panic attack. Is that it?” he asked, glancing back up at Nico. Nico nodded, and Jason sighed. “They don’t know how to bounce back. Have you told them that this isn’t your first one?”

“Oh, gods, I couldn’t even imagine. They would probably put me in a padded room.”

Percy, who had been quiet this whole time, decided that the best way to diffuse Nico’s bad mood would be to splash him with water. A lot of water.

“What the fuck, Percy?” Nico shouted, seething with anger.

“Let’s fight.”

“I’m going to beat your ass.”

“I mean, lets train! Use our powers, everything we’ve learned these past few years, have fun!”

Nico had to admit, it wasn’t a bad idea. It did sound pretty fun. His powers were likely getting rusty anyway; Will had been incredibly strict with him and refused to let him practice. But if he tried with Percy and Jason? If he started getting tired or transparent, they’d probably be as worried as Will. Just as irritating about his recovery, too.

After a second, Nico nodded. “You’re on, Jackson.” He smirked and pulled his sword out of the shadows.

Percy smiled in response, and Jason, though he looked a bit confused, drew his sword as well. The three boys quickly dropped into defensive stances, trying to keep their eyes on each other, gauging who might attack first.

For a moment, Percy’s eyes were on Jason, and Jason’s on Percy, so Nico took the chance to strike Percy. He reacted quickly, blocking Nico’s thrust and neatly returning his own. Nico laughed as he dodged Jason’s strike at the same time. As he turned to strike Jason, Percy had the same idea and made a blow with the flat side of his sword, and they both hit Jason at the same time—who, in response, used the wind to knock Percy and Nico away from him.

Nico, in retaliation to Jason using his powers, used his own. He concentrated and worked on trying to get the ground to shake. It was difficult—that was more Percy’s domain than Nico’s—but Nico was successful enough to knock Jason to his ground. Percy gave him a high-five, and then, with much more ease than Nico, knocked him over using the same move.  
Nico lay on the grass, laughing harder than he had in awhile, then he melted into the shadows. He reemerged a few feet away, and struck Percy from behind.

Percy yelled and dodged Nico’s hit, but he didn’t have the time to hit him back before Jason attacked.

Nico’s mind drifted back to Will, and what he had said in the closet a few days ago, and he nearly got hit by Percy. Nico groaned; he needed to talk to someone about this.

“Will told me he’s bi,” he blurted, swinging at Jason.

Jason stopped, only long enough to nearly get knocked down by Percy again. “And?” he asked, lunging back toward his assailant.

Nico swung as well, this time to stop Jason’s sword from hitting Percy. “And what?”

“What did you do?” Percy asked, laughing as he intruded on their spar.

“I freaked out,” Nico replied, turning to get a hit at Percy. “I told him that stuff is private.”

“Nico!”

“Are you serious?”

Percy and Jason both stopped moving, then turned to hit Nico upside the head. Nico shot back by summoning a skeleton; he could use an ally in this fight.

“What’s wrong with that? It is private!”

Jason whined with frustration as Percy ran from Nico’s skeleton.

“Not anymore! It’s okay to be bi, or gay, or whatever, nowadays.”

“Why did he feel the need to tell me, though?” Nico asked, swinging at Jason again. Percy was still preoccupied with the skeleton.

Jason swung back, nearly hitting Nico and getting in his face. “He wanted to let you know he was available, dumbass.”

Nico scowled and ordered the skeleton to go after Jason instead.

Percy recovered quickly. He then drenched Nico with water, and the skeleton was set on him again. Nico turned his attention to Jason, expertly dodging his attacks while attempting to land his own. Unfortunately, Jason was also expertly trained, so Nico wasn’t winning.

Finally, Nico managed to back him into a corner, though, and it was shaded by a nearby tree so he had the upper hand. He could easily shadow-travel if Jason attempted to escape, and he held the tip of his sword at Jason’s throat.

“Nico?”

Nico glanced over, and the skeleton he had summoned melted into the ground because of his lack of concentration. Percy picked his sword up from the ground and waved brightly at the newcomer. Jason didn’t move, as Nico’s sword was still aimed at his throat.

“Hey, Will,” Nico greeted, smiling and waving. He probably looked horrible, utterly drenched with both water and sweat, and definitely windblown from Jason— but he felt so alive. His heart raced, and his cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and he had really, really missed shadow traveling.

Will looked furious, though.

“I’ll be back in a minute, guys,” Nico muttered, dropping his sword from Jason’s neck as he walked away. He checked to make sure that his friends were watching, though, just in case he ended up needing witnesses for his murder.

Will stood with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face.

“What’s up?” Nico asked nonchalantly.

It only served to make Will angrier. “You were using your underworld powers.”

“Percy and Jason were watching me, and I need to practice them anyways. I can’t get better with them if I don’t use them.”

“You could have gotten hurt! They were only egging you on,” Will all but yelled. He instinctively reached out and took Nico’s hand, checking his vitals. “You seem healthy, elevated heart rate but you were just exercising. Why did you run away?”

Nico jerked his hand back, studying the ground.

“I’m not going to break,” he murmured. “I’m not some fragile little thing you have to protect from everything. You guys were annoying me. It’s been two days.”

“Oh,” Will replied. His voice was quiet, and Nico had to fight to not look up at his face. “This is just...we haven’t dealt much with campers who have PTSD, or anxiety issues in general. If they have it—and I’m sure they do—they get therapy outside of camp. You’re a different case, though.”

Nico lifted his head when he mentioned the letters. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“The letters you said. PSTD or something?”

“Oh, PTSD? It stands for post-traumatic stress disorder. Have you never heard of it before?”

Nico shook his head, and a sudden wave of fear washed over him. This was it. He was going to get admitted to a mental ward, shunned from society. He was crazy, crazy enough that there was a name for it.

“It’s the brain’s natural response to a traumatic event. It doesn’t know how to process memories that are too painful, so it simply doesn’t. Then, when certain things happen, panic attacks or flashbacks can occur,” Will paused, stepping closer to Nico. His volume lowered even more. “That’s what happened to you in the closet. Something must have triggered your panic attack, like being trapped.”

Nico could only stare. He didn’t know what to say.

“I didn’t want to accidentally trigger you again. That’s why I’ve been acting so careful. Austin and Kayla? I’ll punish them for annoying you if you want me to, but I want you to talk to someone about this. It explains a lot of your health problems, actually. Lack of sleep, no appetite, irritability, how little you trust people, why you run away so often…”

Nico hung his head. After all of his efforts to get him to stay, Will was going to send him away.

“I’ll find someone for you at camp, yeah?”

His eyes shot back up. “You want me to stay around?”

Will huffed. “Why wouldn’t I? Nico, you need stability and consistency in your life for once. I’m not going to risk further trauma just because I think you need a bit of help.”

Nico could almost cry.

“Now, you need to stop using your powers for today,” Will continued, putting his hands on his hips. “I want to run some tests on you, double-check that you aren’t going to fade away.”

Nico nodded, unable to speak. He waved to Percy and Jason as he followed Will out of the training grounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got bored so I posted early.
> 
> Did I scare any of you guys with the summary?
> 
> I made a Patreon! I'll be posting chapters early, writing scenes from different POVs, writing more little blurbs, giving you guys the unedited chapters, and so much more! I think I'm most excited about taking one-shot suggestions from you guys. Any amount is super helpful, and I'm not doing tiers so everyone has access to everything! Link is below, and as always; leave me a comment; I'm very lonely.
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/bsea219


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico talks to Rachel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want chapters early, the ability to suggest one shots, and many other bonuses, don't forget to check out my Patreon!
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/bsea219

Nico looked at the infirmary door. He had promised Will that he would be back the next day to talk about...well, whatever Will wanted him to talk about.

To say he was scared would be an understatement.

Nico knew what he couldn’t mention to Will. Nothing about what had happened while getting Diocletian’s scepter, nothing about his crush on Percy, nothing about being...nothing about his feelings.

And absolutely nothing about the feelings that Nico absolutely did not have for Will.

Nico closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then walked into the infirmary.

“Hey, Will?” Nico called. Austin waved at him from the desk, and he looked like he wanted to apologize again, but Nico hadn’t seen Austin eating the cupcakes at lunch earlier so he suspected that Will had given him and Kayla their punishments for being irritating.

Austin did run and get Will from the back, though, which Nico was grateful for.

Will smiled when he walked in and saw him. “Hey! You’re actually here.”

Nico nodded. “I...I want to get better.” His hand moved to his head, his fingers twirling a strand of his hair. “Where are we going?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Will replied. “I’m needed here. Rachel should be here for you in a minute.”

Nico froze.

“What do you mean, Rachel?” he asked. He didn’t know Rachel that well. He didn’t know what was off limits with her, what she was okay with, if he could even trust her.

“I’d be...a bad therapist for you,” Will explained. “You’re too close to me. I’m too emotionally involved to give you sound advice or opinions.”

Nico groaned. He really, really didn’t want to talk to someone he barely knew, but Will didn’t seem like he was about to change his mind.

“I heard I was called!”

Nico turned around. The oracle stood in the doorway, her grin bright and her hair brighter.

“Nico, meet Rachel,” Will said. “She’s not a therapist but we think that her connection to the spirit of Delphi could help provide insight, and she’s a nice person, so maybe you two could become friends.”

Rachel held out her hand enthusiastically, and Nico shook it carefully.

“It’s nice to meet you for real, Nico! I’ve heard about you quite a bit, and seen you in battle a bunch of times.” She did seem nice, but that didn’t help much. Nico needed to know her limits. What could he share with her? What would she tell Will?

“Alright,” Will announced, “I have some work to get back to. See you at dinner, Nico!”

And with that, Nico was led out of the infirmary by Rachel. He was quiet the entire way to…a cave?

“Is this really where you live?” he wondered aloud as he stepped inside.

Rachel nodded. “Yep! I love it here. I don’t have to worry about people bothering me like I would in one of the cabins.”

That sounded pretty nice, actually.

“Do you ever paint?”

The question caught Nico off guard. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you like to paint?” she repeated. “I think it’s fun. Plus, it gives us something to do while we talk. You can paint whatever you want to.”

She walked over to a set of cabinets and started pulling out a few large white canvases as well as multiple tubes of paint, brushes, palette knives, and various other tools. As Nico glanced around, he noticed that there were already dozens of paintings hanging on the walls and several more stacked up on the floor.

“I suppose it won’t hurt to try,” he relented.

“Great!” She handed him a canvas. She promptly sat down on the ground and opened a few tubes of paint, squirting big blobs of seemingly random colors onto the floor. “I clean the floor well enough for it to be used as a palette. Let’s get started!”

Nico sat down, the overwhelming feeling he had earlier returning. “What...what should I talk about?” he asked, staring at the blank cloth.

Rachel glanced at him briefly and then looked back to her paint.

“Whatever you want to,” she said. “I mean, we are here to talk about you, so I guess that’s a start. We don’t need to, though, if you don’t feel comfortable.”

That only made Nico more frustrated. He was hoping she would have some more specific ideas.

What was a safe topic with her?

“I have friends,” he blurted.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Rachel squirted more paint onto the floor.

“Jason,” he continued. “And Hazel. I wasn’t ever really close with Frank, but Hazel likes him so, I do, too. Reyna is nice to me, too, and so are Percy, Annabeth, and Piper.”

Then he picked up a palette knife. He liked the way Rachel was using hers to spread the paint around her canvas. He decided to try to follow suit.

“I’m glad that you have friends, Nico,” Rachel said, and she sounded sincere.

Nico scooped a bit of navy blue paint off of the floor and spread it over the canvas in a thin layer, and then he repeated the action a few more times with a few different colors. They were all mostly dark, he wanted to leave no traces of white.

“They’re family, kind of,” he continued as he worked on some purple. “Reyna and Hedge gave me their strength and healed me while I shadow-traveled them across the world. Jason and Percy protect me like a brother. Piper and Annabeth protect me from Jason and Percy when they get too annoying. And Will—”

He cut himself off.

“Will is nice,” Rachel said. “He wanted you to do this, right?” She had moved on to using a brush with her paints now. She didn’t look up from her canvas, though, which made Nico feel less...put on the spot.

Nico nodded, even though he knew she wasn’t looking. “Yeah, he, um...he witnessed me having a panic attack.”

Rachel nodded, staying silent.

“Jason. He helped me through a lot, you know?” He knew he was changing the subject. It was obvious to himself, and to Rachel as well, but he didn’t care. “He stood by me. Even when everything I said would make you think he would leave me alone, he stood by me. Helped me see that I wasn’t—that I’m not alone.”

Rachel looked up and smiled. “He sounds like a great friend to have.”

“Oh, he is. He didn’t even laugh at me when he learned that I had a crush on Per—”

Oh gods.

Nico stared at Rachel, eyes wide. The biggest thing he needed to keep quiet, aside from what he didn’t feel about Will, he had just spilled to Rachel.

He felt his heart rate pick up. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he whispered.

Rachel only smiled back and reached out to take his hand.

“You’re safe here—I won’t tell anyone anything,” she said. “But you should know that people think it’s okay nowadays. I’m sure Jason told you the same thing.” Her voice was soft and soothing. Nico focused on breathing and calmed down slightly as she spoke. He was starting to understand why Will wanted him to talk to her. “Besides, most of the camp has had a crush on Percy at some point, myself included. It was a dark time.”

Her joke caught Nico off guard, and he couldn’t help but snort with laughter. Maybe he really wasn’t alone.

“I have a few newer friends, too,” he said. “Cecil, Lou Ellen, and Austin.” He pulled his hand from Rachel’s and started painting again. Golden yellow felt right, this time. He scooped it up with the knife and made a spot in the center, more vertical than horizontal like the previous lines had been. “They’re nice, and pretty funny, too.”

“They’re close with Will, right?” Rachel asked, resuming her own painting as well.

“Yeah, it’s his fault I know them.”

“How rude of him.”

“Terribly so.” Nico laughed again. “Anyways, Austin is one of the people who played this prank on Will and I. He and Kayla locked us into the closet, which is what set off my panic attack.”

Rachel’s smile wavered a bit, but he ignored it.

“At least Will and I got to talk, though. And Austin and Kayla apologized. A lot. It was irritating.”

He stopped painting, holding his canvas out at arm’s length so he could see it a bit better. He noticed that the yellow blob in the center looked a bit humanoid, like a person surrounded by darkness. Overall it was actually quite nice. He was proud of it—though he couldn’t help but be reminded of Will when looking at it.

“Rachel?” he asked, his voice no louder than a whisper.

She set down her paint brush, eyes locked on Nico as he spoke.

“I...I think I like Will.”

That was a lie; he knew he liked Will. He just didn’t want to confront it. But maybe with Rachel’s help, he could start to understand it. He would have someone who was less biased and less likely to gut Will at the drop of a hat than certain friends of his on his side.

Rachel reached over and took his hand again, this time squeezing it tight. “Thank you for telling me.”

“What do I do?” He hated how his voice shook.

“You could tell him,” she suggested. “I’m sure he feels similarly, and if he doesn’t, he’s not going to hate you for it.”

Nico thought about that. Percy had reacted fairly well—he was more surprised than angry, or hurt, or anything else. But Will wasn’t Percy—which was a good thing, but it also meant that Nico wasn’t sure how he would react.

“I...might,” he replied, staring at the floor.

Rachel shrugged. “You don’t need to if you don’t want to. It’s entirely up to you. If you need help, though, I’m on your side.”

“Thanks.” He paused, setting his painting to the side. “So, Hazel is my little sister. Daughter of Pluto, though. She and her boyfriend, Frank, live over in New Rome…”

Nico talked about his sister for a while, then Percy and Annabeth for a bit, and ended up on Jason again. Rachel never once judged Nico for anything he was saying, and he felt safe—for once, everything felt really, really safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is super busy, I'm not going to be at home all day, so I'm uploading this from my phone. Wish me luck.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico tells Will.

Nico stared at the ceiling of his cabin.

It had been a few days since he talked with Rachel, and he had gone to another session with her once since then, but he didn’t talk about much that time.

Their conversation about Will weighed on his mind, though. A lot. It was all Nico thought about when he was alone, or with Jason and Percy, or while training. And if he was actually with Will?

Gods, it was getting bad.

He could barely manage to help out at the infirmary earlier that day. Any time Will walked over, Nico freaked out and all but ran away. He couldn’t even look at Will, let alone talk to him.

He was terrified. If Will found out about his feelings and didn’t feel the same way, it would crush him. Or, alternatively, if he did feel the same way, then Nico had no idea where to go from there. He might like Will, but that didn’t mean he was ready for a relationship, or telling everyone, or being comfortable with anything of the sort. Nico couldn’t imagine telling Hazel, or Reyna, or even Jason. The whole camp, Nico’s whole world, was too much.

And what made it worse was that Will was...out. Almost every camper knew that he was bisexual. There wasn’t any way Nico could be discreet about it.

But, he owed it to Rachel, he felt. She would want him to tell Will. And Nico knew that she had his back. She would be able to protect him, and whatever she couldn’t do, Percy, Jason, Annabeth, and Piper would do. And...Will. Will hated violence, Nico knew that, but he also knew that if anything threatened him, Will would destroy it.

Nico nodded to himself. “Alright, time to tell Will,” he muttered.

“Tell Will what?”

Nico screamed and nearly fell off of his bed.

Will stood just outside his door, hand poised like he was about to knock.

“Gods! Will!” Nico yelled. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears. “And you tell me that I sneak up on people!”

Will scoffed. “I was about to knock! It’s not my fault you talk to yourself.” He opened the door and entered the cabin. “So, what were you going to tell me?”

Nico thought he’d have another few minutes to prepare, or to chicken out. Not a few seconds.

“Oh, right,” he said. “Well, um, I was going to tell you…”

Will’s expression was unreadable. Nico felt his anxiety building.

“Uh, well…I—I’m gay.”

Will’s face fell for a moment, but then he smiled brightly before Nico could even register it.

“Aww! Nico, I’m so happy that you told me!” he replied, throwing his arms around Nico in a hug that nearly crushed him. “Is that why you were so antsy today? I told you I’m bisexual, you have nothing to worry—”

“And I have a crush on you.”

Will froze, which unfortunately kept Nico trapped in his arms.

“You...you what?”

He sounded confused. Nico shrank.

“I may have a, um, a crush...on...you.”

Will let go of Nico, took a few steps back, nearly falling onto the bed next to Nico’s. He shook his head.

“No,” he said, eyes narrowed. “No you don’t. You don’t like me, at all. I...I thought you…I can’t believe this.”

Nico swallowed thickly. This. This is what he was scared of. Terrified of. Rejection.

He melted into the shadows on his bed, reappearing just a few feet behind his cabin, the tears already welling up in his eyes. Gods, why was he so stupid?

Nico started running towards the other cabins. He could hear Will yelling his name from behind him, but he ignored it.

He paused, glancing at each of the cabins and the campers milling between them. He had no idea who to go to. Rachel was too far away; Will would be able to guess he was going there. Maybe Percy and Jason would be up for another battle. Nico nodded, wiping at his face as he started towards Percy’s cabin.

“Nico?”

That wasn’t Will this time.

Nico turned towards the voice. It was Annabeth, already walking towards him and away from two of her siblings.

“What’s wrong?” Annabeth paused. Her eyes searched his. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

Nico nodded. He knew he could trust Annabeth. He wouldn’t have to share more with her than he needed to—after all, she already knew about how he used to like Percy. With her, he could be safe.

Annabeth put her arm around his shoulders and led him inside her cabin. He wasn’t looking at her face, but saw her siblings back away as they walked nearer, presumably because of Annabeth’s killer glare. Nico had never been more thankful for how intimidating she was.

As he entered the cabin, which was more like a library now that he saw it, a few more of Annabeth’s siblings scrambled outside. For that, he became even more grateful.

“Okay, di Angelo, spill. What’s wrong?” Annabeth asked, whatever harsh demeanor she put on with her siblings shattering as she sat down beside him.

Nico looked at her face, full of sincerity and worry, and his facade cracked. Tears flowed freely down his face and he buried his face in his hands.

“I told Will that I like him and he...he rejected me,” he managed to say through shaky breaths. Annabeth gasped softly and pulled him into a hug. It was a lot more comforting than he had expected. 

He cried a lot harder than he wanted to. He hated this. He felt weak.

“What did he say, exactly?” she asked. Her hands rubbed circles onto his back. “Was he rude?”

Nico shook his head. “He said that I don’t like him,” he replied, sniffling and trying to catch his breath. “That he didn’t believe me.” 

“Maybe he meant something else?”

He shook his head and sat up, wiping under his eyes again. He probably looked like a mess. “You didn’t see his face, Annabeth. He looked horrified.”

Nico almost started crying again, but at that moment, the door burst open.

Percy stumbled into the cabin, eyes wide and panting heavily. He heard a few voices from outside yelling, warning him to not go inside, but they were cut off quickly as Percy slammed the door.

“What happened? Who do I need to kill?” he asked, a darker expression on his face than Nico had seen in a while.

“Nobody,” Annabeth said, standing up to put a hand on Percy’s arm. “Nico can tell you what happened.”

Percy’s gaze, which had been on Annabeth for a second, moved back to Nico.

“Will doesn’t like me back,” Nico muttered.

“I’m going to—”

“Oh, shut up, Seaweed Brain!” Annabeth glared at him. “Comfort your friend, don’t commit murder.”

Percy calmed down a little bit, though he still looked like he was preparing to give Will a black eye the next time they met face to face. He sat down on one side of Nico, and Annabeth sat on the other. Both put a hand on his back, though Annabeth was considerably more gentle. Nico couldn’t help but think that she would have been a great person to have had a crush on, if that’s what the Fates had desired.

“I told him that I liked him. He froze up, looked horrified at the idea. He didn’t believe it, he told me.”

“Oh, Nico,” Percy said. He sounded almost as sad as Nico felt.

Annabeth sighed, but then all three of them jumped when the door burst open again, more voices shouting, but this time two people came in.

“Where is he?” Jason asked, fingertips sparking. “We heard Nico was upset; what happened?”

Piper seemed to figure it out immediately. It made sense—she was the daughter of Aphrodite and all, but Nico wished she didn’t understand. He knew he had seen a few other kids of the goddess of Love before Annabeth had corralled him into her cabin. They all probably knew what had happened, and were going to tell the whole camp.

“We can go and kill him for you, you know?” she said, looking him in the eye. “One word, the four of us will handle it. No one will ever have to know. Quick and easy.”

Nico stared at Piper, horrified and impressed by how serious she sounded. Jason, Annabeth, and Percy all shared the same expression, but Jason nodded in agreement pretty soon after.

Nico shook his head. “No. It...it hurts, but you don’t need to do that.”

“What even happened?” Jason asked, sitting on the bunk next to the one Annabeth, Percy, and Nico were sitting on.

Nico recounted the story for a third time, almost breaking into tears again. Percy and Jason had both told him that Will had been flirting this whole time, and Piper had promised that Will felt similarly. And Rachel had encouraged him. Nico was terrified to tell her what happened. She’d be so upset by it.

“Nico, I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” Jason said, his frown decidedly sour. Annabeth nodded in agreement, and Piper sat back, confused.

“I can’t believe my intuition was wrong,” she muttered. “I’m never wrong. Is there anything you need, Nico?”

Nico shook his head.

Then, for the third time, the door opened and slammed shut again.

All five demigods looked at the newest intruder, and three of them stood, ready to fight. Percy even drew his sword, which he sheepishly put away when Annabeth yelled at him.

“Will, what the hell are you doing here?” Jason’s voice was cold.

“I wanted to talk to Nico. Explain myself,” Will replied, his hands in the air.

Nico stood, folding his arms and looking him in the eye. “How did you find me?”

Will smiled a bit when he saw Nico. He almost moved towards him, but put his hands back over his head when Jason and Percy moved to fight again. “There’s a crowd of angry Athena campers outside, and a small lightning storm above the cabin,” he explained. “Not to mention a trail of dead grass leading here. I made a few guesses.”

Nico nodded, sitting down again. “What did you want to tell me?”

Will fidgeted, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Can...can we go somewhere more private?”

“No,” Nico put simply.

Will nodded, lowering his hands as Jason, Percy, and Piper sat down.

“Can you come over here, then?” he asked. He sounded desperate.

Nico relented, standing up shakily. He moved towards Will, but only took a few steps.

Will took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for how I reacted, Nico. I didn’t mean to make you think I don’t like you back. I genuinely didn’t think you liked me. I thought you hated me, actually.” He chuckled a little. “I was stunned to learn otherwise.”

Nico looked at the ground. Percy had thought the same thing when Nico had confessed to him.

“I spent all this time thinking you wanted nothing to do with me,” Will continued. “You never wanted to talk to me, you would run away when I got close…I guess I just misinterpreted it all. I do like you, Nico. A lot, actually. Probably too much.”

Nico’s vision started to blur. “Are you sure?” he asked, hastily scrubbing away any tears that fell. “Because you seemed horrified. Why should someone like me like someone like you?”

Will’s heart broke, and it showed on his face. “Nico, I was surprised, not—”

“No, you were disgusted. By me, or by my feelings, or someth—”

He was cut off by Will surging forward and kissing him.

This wasn’t right.

This couldn’t be how this went.

Nico pushed him away, and as he did, his mind pushed forward another painful memory.

This time, instead of inside the jar, he was back in that courtyard with Jason and Cupid. Cupid had shoved him to the ground, he was too close, and yet, Nico couldn’t touch him. He was everywhere and nowhere. Too close, pulling words Nico didn’t want to say out of his mouth.

“Get away from me!” he screamed, sinking to the ground. He held his hands over his ears, trying to block out Cupid’s vile voice. He could feel the arrows sinking into his body, invisible except for the trails of blood. He knew he needed to tell the world his secret, his soul-binding secret, but he was scared. So, so scared.

After what was probably just a few minutes but felt like a lifetime, Nico opened his eyes.

Annabeth and Piper stared at him with wide eyes, sitting on the ground next to him, seemingly afraid to reach out and touch him.

Percy and Jason, on the other hand, looked murderous.

Will was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! How are all of you? I'm about to sleep over my friend's dorm, so hope you all like the chapter!
> 
> My patreon is available if you'd like early content, extra one shots, and chapters written in a different POV! https://www.patreon.com/bsea219
> 
> And, as always, leave me a comment, I'm very lonely!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will talk, again.

Nico curled in on himself, holding his torso tight. He had slept in the Poseidon cabin the previous night with Percy and Jason—they had wanted to keep him company and cheer him up. He couldn’t seem to say no.

Nico had wanted to be alone, but it was nice having friends around. He was usually able to sleep better, and they were pretty good at making him laugh. Not that he would ever tell them that—Percy and Jason would definitely use that against him later on—but it was a nice revelation to keep to himself.

The other demigods had told Nico that Will had fallen pretty hard when he shoved him, and that Percy and Jason had basically chased him out of the cabin.

Needless to say, Nico felt terrible.

He liked Will—a lot. As Will himself had put it, probably too much. Will was passionate, and caring, and sweet, and nice. So nice. He didn’t deserve what Nico was putting him through, but he still took it all. He kept coming back, no matter what Nico threw at him.

And so, Nico felt guilty for what he had done.

He knew he wanted to make it up to Will. As much as it scared Nico to think about being in a relationship, maybe he could grow used to it. He had endured worse than someone who cared for him, even if they would get stared at. It wasn’t like the 1930s anymore, Jason and Rachel had assured him.

With that, Nico resolved to go and talk to Will.

“Hey, guys, I’m going back to my own cabin,” he said to the room, unsure if either of the other two were even awake. Percy snored loudly, and Jason threw a thumbs-up into the air, then turned to his side and presumably went back to sleep.

Nico stood up and looked at his friends, a small grin on his lips. They were stupid, but he couldn’t help but be appreciative.

He left Percy’s cabin and immediately made his way over to the infirmary. He hadn’t lied to Percy and Jason persay—he really was going to his cabin. But not right away.

Nico knew it was pretty early; he hadn’t been able to sleep at all the night before. He knew Will, though, and Will was likely to be working at this ungodly hour of the morning.

Nico stopped right outside of the infirmary. He knew that he wanted to apologize to Will—for a lot of different things, actually, he realized as he started making a mental list. For shoving Will, for pushing him away emotionally, for freaking out, for being a bad friend, and so much more.

After another minute of preparing himself, he stepped into the infirmary. As Nico looked around and saw no one right away, his body relaxed considerably. He hadn’t realized how tense he was.

“Hello?” he called out, stepping forward. “Will? Are you here?”

The boy in question stepped out of the supply closet. He nearly dropped the box of band aids in his hand when his eyes met Nico’s.

“Hey,” Nico said softly. He felt more exposed than he had expected. 

“Hi,” Will replied, unmoving.

The entire list of apologies Nico had come up with disappeared, leaving his mind blank. No words seemed to form. He looked stupid, he knew it, but at least Will looked too shocked to speak, as well.

“I’m sorry,” he eventually blurted out. He then snapped his mouth shut, trying to figure out how to proceed from there.

Will looked confused. “For what?” he asked, setting the band aids down onto a nearby table. He took a few steps towards Nico, but they were hesitant, as if he was scared.

Nico only felt more guilty.

“I’ve been terrible to you for...for a while,” he murmured. His gaze shifted to his feet and a hand went to the back of his neck. “I really want to apologize for yesterday. I should have been calmer about everything and shouldn’t have assumed the worst automatically. It was rude, and I apologize.”

“Nico, it’s okay,” Will said softly, moving closer. “You can’t help the reactions you have to any given situation.” 

“I’ve been through a lot,” he replied. “I should be able to handle the guy I like kissing me.” Nico hoped he didn’t sound too angry, even if it was directed at himself. “I also need to apologize for the past couple of weeks. I didn’t know how to talk to you, so I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Will sighed, and then he sat down on a nearby bed. He motioned for Nico to do the same, and he obliged. The two boys sat in silence for a second, and then Will took another deep breath.

“You’re saying that you really do like me?” he asked, sounding hopeful. 

Nico nodded. 

“I thought you hated me, Nico!”

Nico couldn’t help but chuckle. “You know, Percy told me the same exact thing.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I guess I have that effect.”

Will nodded. “I don’t like that I’m the next guy after Percy, but okay. I believe you.”

Nico groaned. “You have nothing to worry about with him.” He couldn’t help but smile. “I think I got over him before the big seven quest. I should have realized long, long before then though.”

“Are you sure?” Will asked teasingly. “He’s pretty great, being the son of Poseidon and all.”

Nico scowled. “I’m the son of Hades; do you really think Poseidon is supposed to impress me? Percy has only seen his dad three, maybe four times. Me? I’ve lived with Hades. He’s got nothing on me.” He laughed as he spoke, but he didn’t miss the way Will’s eyes seemed to follow his every movement. “Plus, I can take him down in a fight. Not that impressive.”

“You could take me down in a fight.” Will seemed so much happier as he teased Nico, and so much more comfortable, now that he had told him the truth.

“Probably,” Nico teased back. All of the sudden, he noticed how close they were to each other. Their knees touched, and Nico could smell Will’s minty breath and coconut shampoo. If Nico moved his hand an inch it would be on top of Will’s. It scared him a lot, but he wanted to kiss Will, for real this time.

And so he did.

Or, he tried to, at least.

As he leaned forward to kiss Will, Will leaned backwards to avoid it.

Nico frowned, moving so that they weren’t touching anymore.

“Was I not supposed to do that?” he asked, emotion making his voice crack. The way Will had just been looking at him made him think that it was perfect timing for a kiss, but apparently he had misinterpreted Will yet again. He wished he knew how to read people better, or that everything was able to be told to him explicitly.

Will groaned, flopping backwards onto the bed. “I like you, Nico. So much that it hurt to do that. But—”

“But what?”

“But you’re hurt! Hurting. A lot.” He spread his hands. “I mean, I tried to kiss you yesterday and you shoved me away and had another panic attack. I shouldn’t have tried to make you stop talking in that way, and I’m very sorry about trying that, but you need to heal a bit before we can have a relationship.”

Nico’s heart sank. “I’m too crazy for you?”

Will’s head shot back up, at eye level with Nico again. “Gods, no! It’s just—I don’t want to take advantage of you. I don’t want to put you in situations you aren’t comfortable with. I don’t want to keep giving you panic attacks simply because we are together.” Will paused to take a breath. He reached over and took Nico’s hand, pressing his lips to his knuckles. “I like you, Nico. You know that. I want you to be comfortable enough with yourself to willingly be in a relationship, rather than feeling like you have to be. Does that make sense?”

Nico nodded, even though he was still confused. He’d have to talk it through with Rachel—she would probably understand this so much better.

“I hate this,” Will started. “I wish I could call you my boyfriend and parade you around to the whole camp, and kiss you, and sing songs for you, and a million other things, but I can see that just saying that made your heart rate pick up. And not in a good way.” Will paused again, and Nico took a moment to notice just how sincere Will seemed. “We can take it slow, yeah? I don’t mind that. I’m willing to put in the time for you.”

Nico was speechless. How could anyone reply to that?

Will was easily one of the most passionate people at camp, including the Aphrodite campers. He loved putting everything he had into everything he did at full steam. And yet, here he was, slowing himself down, giving Nico the space and time he needed to catch up. Even taking things slower, though, he still seemed to be putting his all into Nico.

Nico could barely help himself as he threw his arms around Will, hugging him with all of his strength.

“Thank you, Will,” he murmured, squeezing a bit tighter before letting go.

Will was obviously shocked, but he was still smiling. “Any time, Nico.”

Nico nodded and stood up, stretching his arms over his head as he did. “Time to get to work, then? What can I start out with?”

Will stood, too. “We got a shipment of supplies yesterday—want to put them into the closet where they belong?”

Nico nodded. He started to move towards where he had seen the boxes when he first came in, but Will grabbed onto his hand and stopped him.

“Let me know if you need help, yeah?”

Nico nodded, expecting to be let go, but Will still held on.

“And...can I kiss your cheek?”

His face burned, and he was sure he was blushing, but he nodded again nonetheless.

Will pressed a soft kiss to Nico’s cheek, and then they both went on their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting a little bit early again because I have an 8 hour shift tomorrow, wish me luck lmao
> 
> I added around 300 words last minute and my beta reader, the lovely person she is, didn't get the chance to edit it before I'm posting so if there are little errors here and there, sorry! I'll fix them at some point.
> 
> On that note, i love you all and leave me a comment! I love them (some of you guys have actually made me cry with how nice you are) and I always appreciate feedback on how chapters are doing.
> 
> Hope you liked it!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico talks with Rachel

“I just wish I understood what he wanted more, you know?” Nico sighed. He glanced at Rachel, who was half focused on what Nico was saying and half focused on her painting. He had spent a lot of time with her recently—this was their sixth or seventh session, and Nico was beginning to feel really comfortable with her.

She opened up to him just as much as he opened up to her, and she made his seemingly monumental worries and stress feel small and manageable. She had helped him to fully come to terms with Will actually liking him back and even got him to tell her about his life on the streets. He hadn’t even told Jason or Reyna about that part of his life yet—even if they had both seen it through memories.

“He will get better with talking to you,” Rachel started, “just like you’re getting better with talking to him. Communication isn’t easy. I mean, you could barely talk to me our first day and here you are now!” She laughed, leaning over to nudge his arm. “You won’t shut up, now!”

Nico nudged her back, even sticking out his tongue in retort.

He had to admit it, though—she really was helpful. Not only with figuring out emotions, either. He found himself able to listen to Will’s advice about his health easier this past week, not argue with Jason or Percy as much, and even sleep better. He no longer had to overthink everything each night—he could talk about it all with Rachel a few hours before and fall asleep just fine.

Staying asleep was another story, though.

Even if he didn’t consciously overthink everything, his subconscious was having a field day. Nightmares occurred regularly about things ranging from Will suddenly losing interest to nearly dying again to falling back into the Pit. Some nights, he had to watch Will fall. Others, he was being trapped in the jar again. And some nights, every friend he made turned their backs on him.

The worst nightmare he had to face was Bianca coming back to life but rejecting him once she learned of his feelings for Will.

“So, do you want to talk about your panic attack a few days ago?”

Rachel’s question pulled him from his memories. This train of thought wasn’t much better, but at least it wasn’t the nightmares.

“You mean the one that Will caused?” he asked, setting down his paint brush. “I mean, I told you most of it. I told him that I liked him, he didn’t believe me, I got upset and left, he tried to calm me down and tried to kiss me. I wasn’t ready for it, and so I freaked out.”

Rachel frowned. He knew that she knew there was more to it, but she didn’t want to pry.

“What memory did him trying to kiss you trigger?”

Or maybe she did.

Nico looked at the floor. He wrapped his arms around himself, one hand lightly touching a spot where Cupid’s arrows had sank into him.

“It was during the Big Seven quest,” he murmured, closing his eyes as the memory returned. He felt a hand on his knee and looked, Rachel had set aside her painting and was focusing on Nico entirely. “Jason and I had to stop and get this scepter. It was so I could close the doors of death from our world.”

Nico felt like he was in two places at once: Rachel’s comforting cave, and the overwhelmingly warm Italian plaza. He and Jason stood side by side, heads swiveling as they tried to pinpoint exactly where Cupid was.

“Jason and I were overwhelmed. He, Cupid, was everywhere. But he was invisible, taunting us. He...he told me that I had to—” Nico cut himself off as he grimaced. “I had to tell him and Jason that I liked Percy.”

Rachel sighed, her hand a comforting pinpoint to remind Nico that he wasn’t there anymore. He was safe. He wasn’t going to get hurt.

“I tried to tell them that I liked Annabeth, but he shot us with arrows.” Nico could almost feel them now. “He tortured us. He would disappear and reappear, and he looked sickeningly like Percy. He was too close all the time, and the arrows felt like poison. He wouldn’t let us go until I admitted that I loved Percy Jackson. I didn’t want to, gods. I knew I wasn’t in the thirties anymore, but we hadn’t talked about...that.” Nico still could barely say it. Rachel was safe, but he still couldn’t bring it up properly. “For all I knew, Jason was going to kill me. Tell the others why, and they would have been okay with it. And I had no choice. I was going to be killed either way.”

Rachel sniffed and Nico saw her wipe away a tear. She held her arms out in a silent question, and he nodded, letting her hug him. He realized that, while he was experiencing the memory and the feelings he had felt, he hadn’t actually relived it this time. He was still in Rachel’s cave with her as she cried.

“Don’t tell Will, please,” Nico requested as Rachel eventually let go.

Rachel chuckled as she wiped away the last of her tears. “I wouldn’t go breaking patient-doctor confidentiality, now would I?”

Nico shrugged. “I s’pose not.”

“It makes a lot more sense now,” Rachel started, moving back to her painting. “Why being with Will scares you so much. I’m sure Jason and Will have already told you, but you’re safe here. Most of the camp is LGBT anyways, and those who aren’t will gladly fight anyone who gives you trouble.”

“What’s that?”

“Hmm?”

“That acronym you said. What is it?”

Rachel laughed a little bit. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. There’s a lot more, but I think you’d explode from just hearing the different terms. There’s a community, now, with millions of people who are just like you and Will. They’re out, and proud of who they are, and provide tons of education and resources for people who need it. It’s awesome.”

Nico sat back in his bean bag.

There were millions of people who all shared the same feelings?

It was overwhelming to say the least, but it also made Nico happier than he expected. If they could live happily, so could he. He thought back to Will, saying that he wanted to be together with Nico, proudly and openly. As Nico imagined it, he came to the conclusion that he wanted that. More than anything. But he needed to heal first, and that wasn't going to happen unless he talked about a lot more.

“I fell into Tartarus.”

Rachel’s smile dropped immediately, her face shocked and horrified.

“Do you want to—”

“I need to tell someone,” Nic said stubbornly. “Anyone. Other than those who already know. Percy and Annabeth are fine to talk to, but it hurts them, to talk about it.”

Rachel closed her mouth, then dropped her and Nico’s paintbrushes into a jar of water. She shifted so she was closer to him, resuming a similar position to what she had while Nico spoke about Cupid.

“I fell into Tartarus. Or, I jumped, I guess. I wanted to close the Doors of Death from the inside, I needed to do it. I thought I was the only one able to. So I went alone. They took me, trapped me in this jar. It was sealed tight and I couldn’t breathe and all they did was watch me and mock me.”

“Who took you?” Rachel asked, voice quiet.

“Giants,” Nico replied. “I don’t know their names. They were working for Gaea though.” When he closed his eyes, it felt like the giants were still staring at him, waiting for him to give them information. They hated it when he put himself into the trance; there was no way for them to wake him up without letting him out of the jar, which they never did. They knew not to, or were told not to. “I had to do this thing, I put myself into a trance. I barely breathed, so I didn’t need that much air and wouldn’t run out of it in there. I only woke up to eat another pomegranate seed, then go back to the trance. I was in there for four days before I was rescued.”

Rachel had her hand over her mouth. Nico knew that he had gone through a lot, more than the average demigod, but he hadn’t expected his experiences to stun the most talkative and upbeat girl in camp.

Nico brought his knees to his chest, then hugged his arms around his legs. He didn’t know what else to say. Anything else that happened was lost to Nico’s mind; he could only remember what he relived.

“Why did you want to share that?” Rachel asked. Nico immediately felt guilty—Rachel didn’t want to hear about Tartarus and the giants. She seemed to sense what he was feeling, though, and waved her hands frantically. “I mean, why did you want to bring it up? What’s your reason?”

“I want to get better. I’m sorry if it made you—”

“No! Don’t apologize, it’s okay. I’m glad that you told me. Really, I promise,” Rachel put her hand on Nico’s shoulder and brought him closer to her. It felt like a half-hug, but she wasn’t really touching him much. Nico realized that she was doing it for him; she wanted him to be comfortable but still have support. “I just want to know.”

He sighed, leaning into her touch a little bit. “I know I’m messed up. I want to fix it, so Will can be happy with me,” he explained. “I know he doesn’t think I’m too broken for him, but I am, and I want to fix it. I want to be better.”

Rachel smiled, but it was obvious that she was worried. “You know that he likes you despite what you think is broken, right?”

Nico nodded. “It’s nice to know that. But I want to push myself.”

“Well, I’m proud of you. Thank you for telling me all of that.”

They then both turned back to their paintings. They kept talking about little things, nothing nearly as heavy as Tartarus, as they painted. Rachel even got Nico to laugh at some of her corny jokes.

Nico loved how he felt around Rachel. She was so nice to him, and seemed to genuinely care about what he was going through. She wanted him to get better, and was happy just letting him paint and talk.

After a while, he glanced towards the entrance to the cave and noticed how dark it was. “It’s getting late—should I get going back to my cabin?” he asked, moving to stand up.

Rachel glanced over, then shook her head. “I think it’s too late for that. Unless you want to shadow travel.”

Nico laughed. “Will would yell at the both of us if I did.”

“That’s very true,” she replied. She paused for a moment, then asked, “Do you want to spend the night?”

Nico thought about it for a second. “Am I allowed to?” he wondered aloud. He slept with Percy and Jason often, but never with a girl and never not in a cabin. He didn’t know the rules well enough to say either way.

“I don’t care,” Rachel laughed. “And it will be fun. I have hot chocolate.”

Nico didn’t need to be told twice. “Sold!”

He spent the rest of the night joking around with Rachel and painting until the two of them fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter went up so late, I've been incredibly busy with work and packing for college, and so has my editor.
> 
> That being said, I will be going on a hiatus for a bit. I want to work on the next chapters and improve my writing a bit, but also both me and my editor are moving into our college dorms within the next week or so, and we wanted to get used to college life! I should be back posting chapter 12 on September 20th.
> 
> Thanks for being great readers so far! See you in a month!


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